What could have been 1987
by JasonVUK
Summary: The life of Jeremy Fitgerald is forever changed after a child's birthday party, and an animtronic once enemy becomes an ally. But is it a change for the better or does something far more sinister lurk within the depths of a machine's mind? AU Story created for an amazing picture on Deviantart, for further information see notes
Jason's note: This story was heavily inspired by the artist Autinla's (on deviantart) piece Mangle the Incubator!

If you don't want to be spoiled by the end of the story don't look until after reading :-) This is my first FNAF story, I hope you all like it.

This is a sort of AU/"What if?" story involving the bite of 87.

* * *

He didn't know why he continued to return here, maybe it was his desperate need for the money? At the age of nineteen he needed it. Maybe there was something deep in his mind that got a kick from surviving the nights, sometimes only by the skin of his teeth.

The night before had been absolutely insane, pushing his fears beyond their limits, his body was still flowing with adrenaline due to the stress and panic meaning sleep had alluded him and he knew eventually his adrenaline would stop then his body and mind would crash, but really, he should be fine right? It was the day time so no worries. Right?

Maybe.

With a yawn already escaping from his lips, Jeremy Fitzgerald pushed the door to _Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria_ open, and walked inside. From what he heard the previous night they needed help today with some kid's birthday party. So maybe he'd get some free food for a change and maybe some time to nap, that'd be nice.

Upon entering he already saw the Toy band playing their songs on the stage, Freddy, Bonnie and Chica, they sang the same tunes they always did, the poor bastards. Kinda. Sure they tried every night for the past seven nights to kill him but, those songs were just _awful._

Speaking of which, he turned his gaze to _Kids' Cove_ , the curtain was drawn around the area with a small sign in front. "Sorry Out of Order" it read. Thank god, no Mangle.

He looked at his watch and noticed he was still a few minutes early than what he was told to come in, maybe he'd have time to get a coffee.

"HEY KID!" a loud voice called to him. He turned his head sluggishly and saw a woman, obvious a few months pregnant while wearing the standard purple security uniform, charge right up to him. "Fitzgerald right? Great come on!" she said without waiting for him to answer than grabbed his arm and pulled him along. "Whiny snotty nose brats are working on my last nerve, you can deal with them!" she said and dragged him to where a bunch of kids gathered together.

She more or less pushed him into the kids then stormed off. He didn't know who she was, but he already didn't like her.

The kids were already asking him questions, "Where was Foxxie?" "Did the little kiddies break it again?" "Where was the bathroom?" "Could they have some of the birthday cake now if they asked really, _really_ nicely?" "Was it sweet to work at Freddy's?"

Sadly, the poor late-teen's mind was only working so fast and could only process so much of what was being asked of him so he waited till they all quietened down, which took a good few minutes, and simple replied.

"Yes."

After a few moments, a plan worked through his exhausted brain and he smirked at his own cleverness. "Hey kids listen," he said quietly before he knelt down to look at them at eye level, "how about if you stick with me for the day, and help me get some coffee I'll tell you _everything_ you wanna know about Freddy's and maybe even get to meet Freddy and gang later, what do ya say?"

Okay so he was manipulating kids into getting him coffee in exchange for information and some time with their animatronic heroes, his personal nightmares, but hey they should be safe right, it was day time and the animatronics only played up at night _right,_ so everything would be fine.

The kids agreed quickly and wholeheartedly, he stood back up, groaning a little as he did so and then sent the kids off like his little coffee searching minions. It was kind of awesome. He looked up as another security guard came over, he didn't know many by name due to him working the "graveyard shift" as it was _un-ironically_ called.

"Hey your Jeremy right?" the guy asked, How did everyone know his name … oh wait, name badge _right!_ The guy in front of Jeremy was a few inches taller than him, possibly putting him around six-one maybe six-two, his skin was a rich cocoa colour and he appeared to have a shaved head.

"Yeah, that's me." He replied and stuck his hand out towards the taller man.

"I'm Fritz, nice to meet you." The man replied and took a firm yet not painful hold on Jeremy's outstretched hand and shook it three times before letting go.

"It's weird to see this place so lively." Jeremy said as he looked around at all the people.

"Yeah, I bet it's way different and much more boring on the night shift." Fritz jested.

"Yeah, boring." Jeremy replied half-heartedly, images of all the god damned animatronics new and scrapped scaring the ever living shit out of him. "Total snores-ville." He added.

"Smith, back to work!" the pregnant woman said as she stepped up behind them

"Sorry Alice, sorry I'm going." Fritz apologised quickly as he held his hands up in surrender before looking to Jeremy, "See ya later Jerry."

A nickname already, Jeremy sure felt special …

"And where are those brats I told you to take care of Jeremy?" the woman snarled at him.

"We're playing a game, if you wanna play you can too." He partially lied.

She grimaced, "Ugh, no thanks. Just keep 'em out of my hair." She ordered and stormed off.

' _What a lovely mother she'll be.'_ Jeremy thought sarcastically.

"Mr guard man." A little voice spoke up from the side. Jeremy turned and saw the kids had returned to him, a few holding up cups of coffee, the owner of the voice was a little girl, no older than nine in a little dress, dark pink or maybe a light red, he couldn't quite tell. "We got you your coffee." She said sweetly.

Jeremy felt himself turn to mush, he liked kids, not in _that_ way, god forbid, but he had a younger brother he looked after when he was younger when his mom and dad were busy or were looking for some peace and quiet, so he was used to kids and he liked them.

"Thank you." He knelt down and took the offered cup from the girl, he looked inside the cup, the coffee was black, that was fine, sugar or not he didn't care then he downed the whole cup, not caring for the heat but rather embracing it as it slid down his throat.

"Woooooaaah." The kids watched in strange amazement as the man downed the entire cup in seconds before pulling the now empty cup away from his mouth and smiled at them.

"Thanks kids." He looked at the others whom also had cups, "thanks everyone."

After finishing the last cup of coffee he felt him brain wake up a bit more, things were a little clearer now, which meant when he eventually crashed he'd do so big time! But for now while dwindling adrenaline and caffeine coursed through his veins, he decided to do his job and entertain the kids.

"So," he began as they all sat on the floor with mats under them. "who's birthday is it?" he asked.

The little girl from earlier raised her hand. "Mine, I'm eight years old today!" she announced proudly.

"Eight is a cool age." Jeremy replied, "you starting to be a grown up when you get to eight."

"Will I get a car?!" she girl asked with wonder, her pretty little eyes seemed to shine at the very thought.

"Not yet, but you know what they say about being eight, right?" he asked keeping the kids attention and amazement, it was surprisingly easy.

"No, no what?!" the girl asked.

"Being eight is a big test, if you're really, really good while your eight you get really awesome grown up things when you're older." Jeremy exclaimed using his hands to further emphasis his point.

"Did you get anything?" a kid from the back of the group asked.

He couldn't think of anything, damn it, what could he say, what could he say? "I work here don't I?" he asked rhetorically.

The kids gasped with wonder, as if some ancient secret had been revealed to them.

"If I'm good will I get to work here?" the girl asked.

' _Believe me kid you don't want to.'_ He thought, "Only if you're really, _really_ good." He replied.

He continued to entertain the kids, with half lies, full lies and small little jokes, poop jokes seemed especially well received and hilarious, because _all_ kids loved poop jokes. All the while however he was completely unaware of something's gaze focused on him from behind a curtain, as error readings and warning messages flashed across its vision.

 _ **PREDATOR IDENTIFIED  
PREDATOR IDENTIFIED  
PREDATOR IDENTIFIED**_

"Alright everyone" Freddy said from the stage, "it's time for the cake!" Freddy and the gang then began to walk off the stage.

On a certain level, the animatronics impressed Jeremy, sure they tried to kill him on multiple occasions, sure they were making his life a living hell and haunting his nightmares … where was he going with this again? Oh yeah, impressed. But despite all that, their construction was incredible, much more advanced than the animatronics at Chucky E Cheese, and these things didn't look _half_ as creepy … well not including the older models that is, or The Mangle. The Machines could move so fluidly, so human-like, it was astounding. They were a marvel of the modern age; they must have cost millions to build.

Jeremy noticed Chica walking out of the room towards the kitchen, presumably to get the cake. Everything seemed to be okay so far, which was good. He remembered the guy on the phone telling him that someone had messed with the animatronics criminal detecting systems, but really everything seemed to be going smoothly, maybe he was mistaken, well at least perhaps during the day time that is.

It was then he noticed something from the corner of his eye, Bonnie; he'd stopped moving and was just staring into the crowd of adults … perhaps he was wrong on this account, he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

' _Oh god_ please _don't let anything happen.'_ He silently prayed then looked down to the birthday girl and carefully slid closer to her.

* * *

Everything in her CPU was telling her to act now, the children were in danger, there were Predators _everywhere_ how could some of the adults not notice? How could they not know? It didn't matter, she knew and so did the others, but they were stuck in their routine performance to do anything, she however was not. She eyed the returner, he whom would return each night and sit in the office, the worst of the worst, the Predator in purple, whom hid as an endoskeleton at night, surrounded by children, she noticed him slide closer to the girl beside him and her warning systems flashed quicker through her HUD.

 _ **PREDATOR IDENTIFIED – CHILDREN IN DANGER  
PREDATOR IDENTIFIED – CHILDREN IN DANGER  
PREDATOR IDENTIFIED – CHILDREN IN DANGER**_

She had to act now or innocent life would be lost.

She had to act now, or the Predator could get away, that couldn't be allowed, the Predator had to be stopped! She jumped up to the top of her cove and slid out through the curtain and pulled herself up to the ceiling and crawled as quietly as she could along it.

* * *

Bonnie seemed to snap out of whatever was wrong, allowing Jeremy to calm down just a little bit. Perhaps it was just some slow processing thing as Bonnie tried to "think" about what to do next. Maybe if Jeremy continued to think that he'd eventually believe it.

"I've got the cake!" Chica's voice came from behind them all. Jeremy turned towards Chica whom was effortlessly carrying the large cake. The company had pulled out all the stops for this party to try and win back some credit after a few _incidences._ And so far things seemed to be going in the company's best interests, everyone was happy … well everyone that mattered, and the kids were having a good time.

Chica set the cake on one of the tables and looked towards the group of children, pausing slightly as she stared at Jeremy whom gulped quietly. "Come on kids, come take a seat." Chica said as she focussed back on the kids.

Jeremy felt the birthday girl's hand slip into his, he looked down at her and gave her a gentle reassuring smile, "Come on, let's go have cake."

The girl smiled up to him, then seemed to take notice of something over his shoulder, she smiled with glee and pointed with excitement. "Foxxie!"

Jeremy blinked then slowly turned around yet found nothing …

"JEREMY ABOVE YOU!" Fritz yelled out in warning.

Jeremy looked up and saw Mangle poised to strike on top of the ceiling, its single plastic eye and exposed optic staring right into his eyes. Then suddenly with a screech it lashed out its jaws opened wide.

CRASH!

Jeremy stumbled back then fell onto his rear and looked up, the ceiling tiles had given into Mangle's weight causing the animatronic to come crashing down. landing on the floor head first.

"J-jeeeessus Christ!" Jeremy stammered in panic as he pushed himself away from it.

"Get it out of here!" Someone ordered.

Jeremy felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned around in horror only to see Fritz with a concerned expression and pulled him up to his feet.

"Jesus, that was a close one … she'd have bitten your head clean off." He said

"Oh _really?! DO YA THINK!?"_ Jeremy yelled out hysterically.

"Okay, okay! Calm down, calm down!" Fritz said in a slow calming manner. "You're okay right, nothing broken, no bruises."

Jeremy looked himself over his breathing rapid as he did so. "Ugh, no no. I'm fine, I'm okay."

Off to Jeremy's side the current owner of the company was apologising profusely to the parents and assured them that if need be a whole refund would be given to them if they wanted all the while allowing the party to go on.

"Mr Jeremy, are you okay?" the birthday girl asked, tears in her eyes.

Jeremy glanced down and forced himself to calm down, kids didn't like it when people panicked and it always seemed to upset them.

"Y-yeah, I … I'm okay. I'm fine." He replied.

"Was Foxxie going to hurt you?" she asked sniffling.

Before he could answer Alice, the pregnant woman, came up to them, looking overly pleasant.

"Of course not, Jeremy here is just Man-ugh _Foxxie_ 's favourite and she likes to get close to him." She said, hoping to try and settle the whole situation, she turned a stern eye to Jeremy, "Right?"

Jeremy didn't know Alice, he didn't like her, and he _really_ didn't know what her problem was. But if the company took another bad blow well he'd be out of the job.

"Right. Foxxie and me are like … _best friends._ " He said doing his best to remain calm. "Sometimes she just likes to scare me … as a prank."

This seemed to please the girl, at least enough for her to rub her tears away, "Really?"

"Really." Jeremy replied. "Come on, let's go get some cake."

A few minutes after the whole incidents things surprisingly seemed to calm down. The little girl had informed her friends of Foxxie's "little prank", whom told their parents, whom along with a slight refund in cash seemed happy enough to continue, as long as Foxxie be kept away.

"So, what's her deal?" Jeremy asked stuffing his face with cake as he motioned to Alice.

Fritz whom was stood next to him groaned audibly. "She's the head security officer for today, so if things go well, she gets a big promotion and keeps the job as head of security." He informed the younger man.

"And why is she such a," he paused as kids ran past them laughing, "a bitch?"

"From what I heard, her boyfriend left after she got pregnant which is why this job is so important to her." Fritz replied, "then again she was like that _before_ you got here." He quickly added.

Jeremy groaned. His adrenaline was all but gone and the caffeine was starting to make him crash faster. At least everything was ending on a decent note. There hadn't been another incident with any of the other animatronics and Mangle hadn't shown up again.

"I hope everyone had a great time at Freddy's and I hope to see you all again soon!" Freddy said as the party finished.

"See ya later everyone!" Bonny exclaimed while strumming his guitar.

"Bye everyone." Chica said in giggly tone.

* * *

The party had finally finished and everyone was leaving. Jeremy had been ordered, by Alice, to stay and help clean up with the other security guards. The party had been an exclusive invite only event, but now the party was done and they needed to be ready to open up again in an hour or so to the public.

"Alright, I want you two to go get the Mangle from parts and services and put it back in the cove." Alice ordered two day-time guards.

"Wouldn't it be best to leave it in there for today?" Jeremy asked.

"Just because you almost got flattened doesn't mean it gets locked away, the party is over everything is fine, and that thing keeps toddlers busy for a few hours so it comes back out." Alice replied with a steely glare.

"Great." He grumbled quietly to himself as he put a chair back under a table.

"Quit your bitching." Alice told him before walking off.

Jeremy exhaled deeply, then looked up seeing the security officers drag the Mangle back into the cove, he could've sworn it was still staring right at him.

"Mr Fitzgerald." An older man's voice spoke up from behind.

Jeremy turned and saw Edward Fazburn, owner of the company, the man who'd spoken to the parents earlier. "Yes sir Mr Fazburn?"

"I'd like to thank you for what you did earlier, your cooperation in quieting that little matter with the Mangle really made things go smoother, so thank you."

"It's uh, it's no problem sir, gotta stick together, right?" Jeremy stammered.

Fazburn looked slightly amused by Jeremy's words, "You're still needed for tonight's shift, so why don't you get home and get some sleep."

"But what about around here?" Jeremy asked as he suppressed a yawn.

"We've got enough people to handle it, go home." The elder man replied.

Jeremy didn't need any more convincing, he was surprised he hadn't passed out yet. He just nodded and gave Mr Fazburn his thanks before they two shook hands before Mr Fazburn walked off to do, whatever it was he did.

Jeremy made his way towards exit then paused, feeling a pair of eyes on him, turning he saw Alice looking at him.

"What?!" he asked, a little tired of her attitude.

"Nothing." She replied and got back to work, which was little due to her pregnancy.

Jeremy turned and walked out of the building, not having noticed the machine that stared after him through a curtain.

 _ **PREDATOR IDENTIFIED … ERROR ERROR  
SYSTEMS RESETTING …  
SYSTEMS RESET …  
FACIAL RECOGNITION SOFTWARE ONLINE  
SCANNING MEMORY 00462 …  
PREDATOR IDENTITY ERROR ...  
IDENTITY CONFIRMED – JEREMY FITZGERALD  
FAZBEAR EMPLOYEE – NIGHT GUARD  
EMPLOYEE DETAILS SAVED**_

… JeRemY …

* * *

Jeremy returned that night, silently dreading it. Would they get him this time? Would he be stuffed into a suit of have his head bitten off?

"Chill Jeremy just work the pattern." He reminded himself, he glanced to his watch, he was early.

He walked in through the doors and saw the place was quiet, the band were stood stock still as they should be, the curtain to Kids' Cove was closed, thank god. He made his way towards the security office and saw someone waiting for him.

"About time you got here."

Jeremy saw Alice looking at him with contempt.

"I'm actually early." He replied

"Great then I can clock out now that you're here." Alice replied, as she rose up from her chair.

"Uh, no you should finish your shift _then_ leave when I start mine." Jeremy corrected.

"Or you can shut up and do what I tell you." Alice replied snidely as she grabbed her things. "I'm clocking out you sit down."

Jeremy thought about arguing, but he knew it was pointless, "Fine, fine whatever." He groaned before moving closer.

Alice said nothing, she didn't need to with that smug expression on her face.

' _Bitch.'_ He thought to himself as Alice walked down the hallway away from the security office.

Jeremy collapsed into the chair and looked down the hallway and Alice's retreating form. For a brief moment he imagined any of the animatronics jumping her, but quickly pushed that thought aside, he didn't like her, but he wouldn't want anyone to suffer such a fate.

Soon enough his shift begun, and the animatronics began to wander the premises, Jeremy's week trained survival instinct kicked into high gear, he pulled the mask from the bottom draw of the desk, the flashlight and a can of soda. What? This was thirty work.

He eyed the first mover, which was always the newer Bonnie, in the party room via the camera, though Jeremy knew it was only a matter of time before the older models began to move as well. Checking back to the stage he saw Chica and Freddy had already moved.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." He muttered to himself and gulped audibly, before switching to Prize Corner and using the remote device to wind up the music box. "Okay, remain calm, gotta remain calm." Jeremy chanted to himself quietly.

He looked quickly into parts and services finding all the old animatronics already gone. _'Oh god, oh great.'_

"Hello?" came a sickening sweet voice.

' _Oh NOT him!'_ Jeremy mentally screamed and looked through the cameras, there he was! The little bastard! Left vent and smiling right at him. Balloon Boy, Jeremy's tiny little thorn in the side.

He remembered his first encounter with the little plastic bastard, he'd almost got Jeremy killed after he stole the flashlight, he was lucky it had turned 6 a.m. just as the old Freddy had entered the office.

Back to current events, Jeremy saw Balloon Boy crawl out form the vent and quickly pulled on his mask.

"Hello?" Balloon Boy looked around … stared at Jeremy with the Freddy mask upon his face. "Hi!" Balloon Boy waved. This would happen on rare occasions; the animatronics would communicate with him when he had his mask on. Jeremy simply waved, it was best to make the little guy happy so he'd leave. "Bye." The little animatronic said before crawling back through the vent.

Jeremy removed the mask and exhaled sharply, before immediately looking at his tablet. The Mangle was awake at last, though it hadn't moved from Kids' Cove and instead just stared at the camera with both of its heads … it hadn't done that before. Before Jeremy allowed himself too much thought on the matter he turn his attention elsewhere and checked the other rooms taking note of where everyone was before rewinding the music box. He lowered the tablet and exhaled sharply, then looked ahead and almost yelled; the old Foxy was down the hallway very close to the office, Jeremy grabbed his flashlight and flashed Foxy several times with light. The old withered animatronic shook its head while covering its eyes and Jeremy watched as it retreated between illuminations.

"Good so far, good so far." Jeremy muttered to himself. The hallway was clear as he brought up the tablet and immediately rewound the music box. He really didn't want to know what was in there, but hey if doing so kept him safe why not? He kept tabs on where everything was except …

"Where's Mangle?" he asked himself in a whispered panic.

It was then his heart dropped as he heard the strange static sounds that came from the white and pink mangled fox. He dropped the tablet and quickly pulled down the mask, there it was in the corner of his vision; the Mangle, with its limbs clinging to the ceiling as it watched him, the strange static being emitted from its mouth.

Repeats of the events from the day gone by flooded Jeremy's vision, those large sharp teeth literally inches from his face before the whole thing came crashing down, he felt himself sweat more under the mask, normally after so long it would leave but no, it just waited, just stared.

Jeremy looked away, remembering not to make eye contact and released a shuddered breath from his mouth. Eventually he heard the static stop and removed his mask and looked at his tablet. Rewind the music box, check the vents; old Chica was on his right and old Bonnie on his left.

' _Oh this is just FUCKING great.'_ He mentally cursed.

Back to the music box, rewind, lower the tablet then _immediately_ pull down the mask just to stare at the old Chica standing right in front of him. He turned his head away until he heard he heard the animatronic turn away, he glanced around, nothing; he was safe for now. He removed the mask and looked back at the tablet, rewound the music box once again, then searched the rooms. He was able to pin-point most of them. He lowered the tablet and looked down the hallway. Chica and Freddy, the newer models, were in the hallway looking at him, he flashed his light and watched as they retreated.

Back to the tablet, rewind the music box, search the vents, then the rooms. Tablet down, look down the hallway … clear. Back to the back tablet, rewind the box, check the vents, the rooms … where was Mangle?

He hadn't heard nor seen it since it appeared in the office, he lowered the tablet and pulled the mask down in case one had snuck up on him. Nothing, excellent! He pulled up the mask, then saw movement from the corner of his eye, glancing over he immediately felt his blood freeze in his veins, metaphorically of course. The Mangle was there, its mouth closed, still in the same position it had been when … he'd … last saw … it.

Oh god.

Had it been there the whole time? If so, why wasn't he dead, why hadn't it attack, even now mask-less he stared at it in horror all the while it just stared back.

"Oh god please." He whispered, he flinched violently as the Mangle's form shifted slightly, then began to move, "Oh no, please, please no, no, no!" he pleaded as it crawled down from the ceiling, moved towards his desk … then entered the right vent and left. "What the?"

It had just left, why? It had more than enough opportunity to kill him. He glanced to the clock 4:73am it had plenty of time to kill him. Yet it didn't.

He pulled the mask back down as he felt someone staring from behind him, he turned and saw the new Chica standing in front of him without her beak, she tilted her head and stepped closer staring right at him for a few seconds before leaving.

' _Oh dear god.'_ He sighed in his mask before pulling it up. Tablet up, box, vents, search, tablet down, hallway, rinse and repeat for the next hour and fifteen minutes.

6 a.m. was here and he could leave, he put the mask and flashlight away in the bottom draw and uncapped the can of soda and downed the whole thing in seconds before throwing it in the trash, he speed-walked right down the hallway and headed towards the exit, then paused for just a moment, he turned his head and looked at the closed curtain of Kid's Cove … he must have been insane to have such a thought, but still he went with it, he was going to look at Mangle. Quietly he made his way to the curtain, his body still not over the adrenaline filled panic he had been going through all night, pulled back the curtain a little and looked inside. There it was; the Mangle laying on the ground, its white and pink head facing his general direction. It didn't move, didn't react to his presence as was normal when things turned to 6 a.m., but still.

"Forget it, you got lucky." He muttered to himself and turned towards the exit just as the cleaners came in.

"Hey kid." One of the cleaners said as Jeremy walked past him.

"Hey." He muttered in response before heading home, once again unaware that something had focussed in on him as he left.

* * *

Jeremy arrived at his apartment at 6:20 in the morning, he locked the door behind him, shuffled his way to his bedroom and all but collapsed into his bed while still wearing his uniform.

It wasn't until hours later that Jeremy was awoken by the sound of his phone ringing. With a low sleepy groan, he turned his head towards the bedside table where the phone resided, he reached out and lifted the phone of the receiver and placed it to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Fitzgerald," came the reply; it was Alice and she didn't sound happy.

' _Just great.'_ He thought to himself with frustration, "Mmm?" he made a questioning like noise.

"One of our afternoon shift workers is sick and we need someone else here, so I've elected you to take his place." She stated.

"And what about the night shift?" he muttered in response.

"Still you, look we don't need you in _just_ yet, but be in by two-thirty got me? See you then." Alice instructed him then promptly hung up.

"Fuck you too." Jeremy groaned before looking at the on his bed; 12:40, he'd been asleep for just over six hours, no wonder he still felt exhausted. Well, he might as well get showered, get a clean uniform and try and eat something.

* * *

Two-thirty on the dot Jeremy stepped into the pizzeria and everything was in full swing. The band were playing songs and entertaining a majority of the kids, others were sat with their parents, eating pizza all the while watching from a distance, others were chasing each other around while laughing. Some of his fellow guards looked like they were at their wits end; he didn't even want to imagine what Alice was like. In the Cove he could see younger kids, toddlers really, pulling apart the Mangle as they usually did. In a whole, everything looked about as normal as one would expect, the near catastrophic incident of yesterday seemed a distant memory.

"Thank god you're here." A voice startled him.

Jeremy turned and saw his latest pain the ass coming up to him.

"Hey Alice." He said without any enthusiasm.

"Whatever, you're finally here and now I can go on my break." She informed him, "Alright listen, so far everything is going fine, we've just had a small incident with a child getting hurt from falling over and Fritz is dealing with that. I want you to keep an eye on the little tots in the Cove."

Now normally Jeremy would despise having to go to the cove especially what happened yesterday afternoon, but what had happened during his shift had made him a little curious, though he was still cautious of the mangled fox.

"Alright, I'll keep my eye on 'em." He said before walking off only for Alice to grab his wrist.

"And lets not have any of yesterday's drama again, okay?" she said venomously.

Jeremy pulled his wrist free and nodded to her wordlessly before making his way to the cove. _'Drama, I nearly got my freakin' head bitten off. Bitch'_

Jeremy paused on the outside of the cove, watching the fox be taken apart once again by kids too young to realise how dangerous the machine was, too young to realise how sharp some pieces were.

One child put their hand into the back of Mangle's covered head and tore the metal skull out from within it. Had he seen a look of horror upon the fox's face before its skull was pulled from its head, or was it just him?

He looked at the skull, paling slightly as the eye focused seemed to focus on him once it noticed him there, he turned his eyes away and looked at one child picked up a piece of Mangle and moved it towards its mouth.

"Oh, no, no, no, you can't do that." He said in a soft yet slightly alarmed manner, the child in question turned immediately to the new voice and watched as Jeremy knelt down to them. "Don't put uh, Foxxie in your mouth, she doesn't like that."

The child, possibly no older than two look at the piece in their hand then at Jeremy. "No."

"That's right, no." Jeremy replied softly.

"No." the little one replied.

"No." the one with Mangle's skull said, mimicking the sound as they dropped the skull.

A younger one in the corner seemed to just drool on another piece which Jeremy recognised as Mangle's second endo-skull.

"Excuse but _what_ are you doing?" a voice came from behind him. He turned seeing a woman, possibly in her early to mid-30s looking at him strangely.

"I'm a guard here, this uh, little kid was going to put a piece of the uh, the animatronic in their mouth. We don't want a choking hazard."

The woman looked at the child, presumably her child as the toddler got to their feet shakily and stumbled towards her with their arms outstretched.

The woman picked up the child as the little one laughed then she looked at Jeremy harshly.

"And why are there such small piece here that could choke them?" the woman asked harshly.

' _Do all women just hate me?'_ Jeremy wondered before replying in a calm voice, "They're not supposed to be small miss, the kids take apart the animatronic,"

"Oh! So it's the _kids_ fault?" she said in an offended tone.

"No, no, no! That's not what I'm saying, kids will be kids right? It's what they do, it's just that some of the disassembled parts are really small so it's my job to make sure no one gets hurt or chokes." Jeremy said as calmly as he could.

The woman scoffed, turned and walked off leaving Jeremy and the rest of the kids with the disassembled Mangle.

"I think I'm beginning to prefer my night shifts." He muttered quietly to himself. Sure he had to avoid death at night, but at least he wasn't dealing with bitchy mothers and overly hormonal pregnant women.

He looked back down seeing Mangle's main skull having been left on the floor while the toddler crawled over to play with the building blocks in the corner. Jeremy exhaled tiredly and knelt down to the skull, he looked at it with a pitiful expression before picking up the discarded "Foxxie" head and slid the skull back in till he heard a tell-tale 'click' as the skull was pressed into the head as far as it could go, he turned the head over in his hands so it looked directly at him.

"Your life sucks almost as much as mine." He said then looked to Mangle's scattered parts, "alright maybe just about as much as mine." He put the head back down, taking note of the larger mess of parts before reattaching the head to, what he guessed was supposed to be an arm, then took a step back and looked at the kids playing in the cove.

* * *

As he watched them, he didn't notice the two heads focus on him from the floor, an ever so subtle change in expression, though minute due to the plastic shell. Data flowed through an advanced CPU, as the target's information was changed. She was … one could describe it as confused, curious perhaps, and yet intrigued. Jeremy.

"Fitzgerald!" a woman spoke out heatedly moments before she came into view.

"What the hell did I tell you?" she demanded to know.

"What're you talking about?" Jeremy asked, changing from his relaxed stance to something a little more guarded.

"I just got a complaint from a customer you were smart mouthing her." The woman accused.

"Smart mouthed?" he looked appalled and outraged, "The woman's fucking kid was going to put a piece of Mangle in their _mouth_ , I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want her kid to choke on a piece of metal."

He was right, kids should take better care of themselves, the child would've chocked on a piece if it hadn't been for him. Then something clicked, a dawning realisation; he'd _protected_ a child, saved them from a potential threat. They were … alike.

"I told you no fucking drama today, didn't I? I don't need this bullshit." The woman hissed with anger.

"I did my job okay? I did my job and made sure we didn't get sued for health and safety reasons." Jeremy shot back.

The woman took a step forward and pointed at Jeremy in a threatening manner. "Don't get smart mouthed with me _kid._ I told the woman you'd be dealt with and you _will_ be dealt with, get me?"

"What, you're firing me?" he asked sarcastically and crossed his arms, obviously his patience was about to give out, if they had not already.

"I wish, but then we'd need another night guard." The woman shot back before stepping back a little and crossed her arms over her bloated stomach. "You best not fuck up anymore today Jeremy, or I swear there's going to be major issues."

Jeremy looked like he wanted to reply, but held his words back and simply glared at the woman as she left.

Information was saved once more, adjusted, a new designation given to a new face, there was something, a feeling one could say, buried deep down in all that data, sparked from two or more equations and made up from advanced computing power, the following data was informative as it was slowly becoming obvious. That bloated woman wasn't very nice, and she didn't like her.

Jeremy muttered a few curse words under his breath, his previous serene and calm expression replaced with one of immense frustration and anger. Jeremy didn't like her either.

* * *

Jeremy yawned, he still felt sleepy, the other toddlers had gone home with their parents and Jeremy had made sure he didn't get into any more trouble, as unfair as that incident was, he wouldn't think it'd served the bitch right if their child choked, no; the child was only about two they didn't know better, heck it was how kids learnt, to factor what went in the mouth and what didn't. But perhaps if the mother herself started choking, as he wrapped his fingers around her throat.

' _Okay Jeremy, excessively dark, let's not go there.'_ He chastised himself. He was still a little mad, frustrated and understandably so. "I wanna go home and sleep." He muttered to himself. At least so far his job just consisted of watching over the Cove and The Mangle.

He looked down to the heap of badly assembled parts, it had moved ever so slightly. Jeremy couldn't help but think back to last night, had it _really_ been there the whole time, watching him silently from the corner, if so why wasn't he dead? _'What's going on in that fucked up head of yours.'_ He pondered. The Mangle turned ever so slightly so both of its head were looking right at him, in instinctively flinched but relaxed ever so slightly when it did nothing else, he waited and looked it right in the eyes as it stared back, what was going on with this thing?

"Jeremy." Alice's voice broke him out of his thoughts, he turned around to look at her. "Your shifts done, make sure to be back here for midnight." She ordered

Jeremy glanced to the cove then made eye contact once more with the mangled fox before taking his leave.

Visual sensors watched Jeremy as he left, there was new data being formed, a response to the immediate situation, was it sadness? The dictionary definition of sadness seemed to correlate to what the data was making her 'feel'. Her optics slowly turned to the woman before her who gently patted her stomach.

"Useless fucking men." She muttered to herself, "you best not end up a boy in there." She said to her stomach.

The data was saved. New information and questions were arising.

* * *

12 o'clock midnight back at the pizzeria as usual. Jeremy groaned as he readied himself for another night of hell, his mood was fowl after another pre-shift encounter with Alice.

"Alright." He muttered, "LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED!" he yelled down the hallway.

2.a.m. the animatronics weren't kidding around tonight. Check the vents, wind the music box, lower tablet, pull down mask. The old Freddy was there. Wait. Wait, he turned and left. Lift the mask, check the tablet rewind the music box, check the vents, new Chica on the left, old Chica on the right, just great, check the other rooms, Mangle was gone! Check further, she was in a party room along with new Bonnie. Okay, great! Rewind the music box, lower tablet, pull mask down and stare at old Chica. Jeremy turned his head and saw the new Chica staring at him from the left vent. Soon enough both Chicas lost interest and left. Mask up, flash a light down the hallway, great it was like attack of the twins tonight, new Freddy and old Freddy were there; flash them till they leave.

3 a.m. Jeremy couldn't help but stretch, his sleep deprivation was suddenly getting to him, he cracked open his soda and took a long sip of it, then immediately pulled down his mask, causing him to spill some of his drink as he heard clanging from the side, new Chica was looking at him, watching, waiting, she tilted her head with what could be confusion before turning and left via the vent. He looked to the other vent, checked the light, nothing was there great, he looked back to his tablet, rewound the music box which had nearly run down, check the vents, check the other rooms, lower the tablet, pull down the mask. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

Tablet, box, vents, rooms, tablet, mask, tablet, box, vents, rooms, tablet, mask.

Jeremy's sleep deprived mind was slowing down, he couldn't help it after working two lots of shifts for the past two days he was exhausted and he was hungry, it wasn't his fault he forgot to check the hallway, not noticing as a collective mass of parts climbed up to the ceiling and nestled in a corner like a bird and just observed him from afar.

Jeremy lifted his mask after seeing no one there, yawning loudly and stretched, his joints cracking in response, he flashed the hallway a few times noting nothing was there, brought the uh … the uh thing to his face and checked the vents, nothing in the left and nothing in the right … rewind the box.

"Hi."

"Hey." Jeremy muttered in response sleepily, check where everyone was, check the vents, rewind the … wait a second. "Hi?" Jeremy lowered the tablet and looked seeing Balloon Boy playing with his flashlight. "Oh god, give that back!"

Suddenly from the hallway was the pounding sound of metallic feet, Jeremy looked down the hallway and saw Foxy staring at him as it stomped closer, Jeremy quickly glanced to the digital clock, 3:13 a.m. he wouldn't make it.

' _I'm a dead man!'_ he thought in a panic then looked back to Balloon Boy "Oh god please give that back!"

Jeremy stood up from his chair and moved to get his flashlight back from the child animatronic.

" _SCCCRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_!" Foxy screeched as it leapt towards Jeremy, the night guard lifted his arms to try and shield himself, there was a sudden loud metallic _bang,_ and yet Jeremy felt nothing. Hesitantly he opened his eyes and saw Foxy laying on the ground with Mangle laying on top of it. It picked up the discarded flashlight, which Balloon Boy had dropped before running away, and rolled it across the floor towards Jeremy, he immediately picked it up as Mangle lifted itself from Foxy's form and jumped back up to the ceiling before making its way out of the room. Foxy the pirate rose to its feet and looked to the night guard whom immediately flashed the light in its eyes forcing it to retreat.

Once alone, his mind tried to catch up with what had happened. The Mangle has saved him … _saved?_ Why? "Get back to the plan, back to the plan!" he couldn't think of this now, he had to survive!

He got back into his chair, pulled down his mask and looked around, nothing was waiting for him, he lifted the mask and checked the tablet, rewound the music box which was flashing a red alert sign then checked the vents, he was okay, back to the plan he was gunna be okay.

6 a.m. came, and he was okay.

* * *

It was rather surprising what good a little bump to the head could do for you. Before, she thought things had been clear and simple, but oh how wrong she was, she almost felt … silly, if you could believe that. Now she truly knew how clear things were, before her mind had been clouded, her programming tampered, but from one small accident, everything just seemed to click back into place, like a spanner had been removed from the cogs of her mind.

Her learning development programming had been reinitiated as before it had been stunted and damaged by the corrupt files, her facial recognition software and link to the police criminal database had been fully restored, no longer did every guard become the face of a killer, a rapist, a paedophile, and thank goodness for that, now she had time to think, to learn. And her thoughts had been filled with just one thought, one man rather; Jeremy Fitzgerald. He had been her inadvertent saviour on more than one account, it had been him and his actions that pushed her to try and apprehend him, which led to the accident which freed her mind, it had been him that had took pity upon her the day after and placed her skull back into her head and reset it upon her broken body, it had been he who'd been brought in day after day during the afternoon shifts to watch over her and the cove as kids played, it was he that saved her when the kiddies became too rough, it was he that made the game "Fix Foxxie".

Sure enough the children would still pull at her, but with Jeremy there, they put her pieces back in the right place. It had been so long since she felt anything close to her old self. She took a moment from her recollection to turn her head, now set upon the joint which was actually her neck rather than her leg, and looked at her arm which was also in the correct place, still her body had little of her original beautiful covering but this was a start, this was a beautiful start, though walking around on two legs once more had been difficult, her CPU had needed to recalibrate, but that was no problem and hadn't taken long.

Jeremy; her saviour. She remembered a month ago her predecessor had leapt towards him and she had pounced landing atop of the old pirate and grabbed the flashlight from the retreating balloon boy. Afterwards the fox had demanded an explanation, she had simply blamed the loose tiling and kids putting her limbs in different places, the fox was satisfied and said no more, afterwards she'd re-entered the office quietly and watched him, her saviour, her beloved saviour, it was _adorable_ the way he moved when panicked, the way he'd talk to himself, after so long he began to take notice of her quiet gazing, and of course had initially been terrified, but still she did nothing but watch and contemplate her thoughts, arrange her files, over the man before her, later he seemed to grow accustomed to her silent companionship, at times he'd even talk _to_ her, she couldn't reply of course no matter how much she wanted to thanks to her busted voice box, but she appreciated the thought.

He would complain to her about the bloated woman named Alice, as if she didn't already know, she was awake during the day and would silently watch their interactions and listen to her bad mouth him. It was during these day shifts that she gained many epiphanies.

She had found herself _liking_ Jeremy, she _enjoyed_ his company, she _adored_ his voice, his facial features and build, at least that's what she'd discovered when she's cross referenced the data flowing through her mind with dictionary definitions. She was _feeling_ , truly feeling though in her own unique way, not the kind of "feeling" that had been pre-programmed into her like her love for children, and she still loved children, more so she loved that Jeremy was good with children, which in turn made her like him even more.

In turn however, she found herself disliking the Alice woman, who she found out was pregnant rather than fat like she had initially thought. A woman who was to bear a child, she couldn't help but feel somewhat envious of that capability. Envy, a new emotion – interesting, more data would be needed. Alice, she'd found was rude, arrogant and bossy more so than she should've been considering her position. She seemed to be excessively mean to Jeremy who was becoming more and more exhausted during the night shifts as the nights went on, at one point Jeremy had almost dozed off and she had screeched loudly in order to wake him up, it'd worked effectively, too effectively actually as the guard pulled down his mask and fell out of his chair.

"What?! What's going, uh!" he scrambled back to his feet and looked around before looking at her, she closed her mouth, slowly to further illustrate it had been her who screamed. "Asleep," he muttered aware of what he'd done, "I almost fell asleep," he said in quiet horror then pointed to her, "and you woke me up, you saved me, you're helping me." He stated, she didn't reply, just tilted her head at him, "why?" It was then his clock turned to 6.a.m. and she left.

She was brought from her thoughts as she heard someone groan deeply beside her. She adjusted her focus as saw Jeremy pulled up a chair beside to cove and all but collapse onto it; the poor boy looked exhausted, in his hand was a large cup of coffee, black, most likely filled with sugar, to which he downed in record time. He put the empty cup on the floor and looked at her.

"Thanks for the other night." He said quietly, then looked her over, "kids are still playing rough I see."

' _They were'_ she internally noted, her legs had been removed once more and the kids were playing with them. She loved the kiddies but truly wished they stopped taking her apart, it had taken so long for her to be put back into semi-decent condition. But right now not even that could ruin her mood, Jeremy her beloved saviour was here conversing with her albeit one sided.

"Fitzgerald!" the voice she'd come to not like as time had gone on.

"Yeah?" Jeremy asked not even trying to sound nice.

"Get you lazy ass up, you've got work to do." She said to him with frustration.

"I _am_ working, doing the job you assigned to me, looking over the toddlers in the cove." He shot back.

"Don't smart me boy, come on, I've got something else for you to do, I'll get someone else to watch the little brats." Alice replied heatedly.

"Alright, alright I'm coming, I'm coming." He growled back before giving the mangled fox an apologetic look.

That feeling of sadness came over her once again as she watched Jeremy depart from the cove, who would protect her now if the kiddies played too rough again, she was just starting to get comfortable with her current state.

It was then, new feelings welled up in her, she didn't just dislike that woman, she _hated_ her, she hated how such a horrible woman could become a mother, how she could bully her sweet innocent beloved Jeremy.

And Jeremy, there was a new feeling connected to him now, it was more than _like_ but what was it? Love? Perhaps, though dictionary definitions didn't seem quite right, not quite that. So somewhere between the two? The data needed to be analysed further.

Hours went on further, the children as expected played rough with her, and without Jeremy the game "Fix Foxxie" never occurred, she was once again left as a mess of parts, and her tin plated heart ached for her saviour.

* * *

Jeremy looked at the Mangle as his afternoon shift ended, its … _her_ head turned ever so slightly towards him.

"I'm sorry." He mouthed, hoping she'd notice before taking his leave.

Things had changed, he knew that much. The Mangle for whatever reason had turned against its own kind in favour of him, it protected him, it kept him company, it helped him. Why he didn't know, and as much as he'd been pondering it over the last month he still couldn't figure it out. Did he see the animatronic as an ally? A friend? He really didn't know, everything was so much more confusing now. He felt sorry for the poor thing … girl, taken apart every day and left to more or less rot, who knew where her costume was? Perhaps all the spares had been destroyed after constant fixing, or heck maybe they were in the back but no one ever cared enough to get one for her due to her _occupation._

He arrived home, foregoing any form of food and collapsed face first into bed.

* * *

Jeremy turned up earlier that night having prepared himself tonight, more so than he'd ever done before as he carried a large paper bag in his hand. He stepped into the pizzeria.

"Hello?!" he called out.

"Who's that?" came a familiar voice.

"Uh … Jeremy." He replied and looked down the hallway and saw a bald man in the security room.

"Uh hel- hello, um, how you doin?" the guy stammered.

"You're the guy who left the phone calls." Jeremy noted.

"Uh y-yeah that's me." The guy waved awkwardly. Then looked at the time, "you're a little early ain't ya?" he asked.

"I like to get comfy." Jeremy replied, "I'll be with ya in a sec."

"Oh o-okay!" came the reply.

Jeremy kept his eye on the camera and moved to ensure the phone guy wouldn't see him, he slid himself up to Kids' Cove and pulled the curtain a little. "Make sure you're the first to the office." He instructed the mangled fox, he could see her on the floor, in a state not too different from when he'd first seen her. He didn't know if she was still active but he could hope, and pray she heard him. He moved back to the hallway and walked towards the security office.

"So uh, you relieving me?" the guy asked.

"I'm not that kind of guy, but sure blow." Jeremy replied while cracking a little smile.

The guy looked at Jeremy with a strange expression before shrugging and got up from the seat.

"Well uh, I'll see you tomorrow." The guy said and made his way down the hallway as Jeremy sat down.

' _Okay, I've got twenty minutes till show time.'_ He thought to himself, he reached into the paper bag and pulled out a _large_ burrito, a large thermos filled with coffee, and a screw driver. "I'm ready."

Twenty minutes later and the clock just turned to midnight, he checked the tablet and immediately saw Mangle was missing, he then heard her tell-tale static coming from the hallway. Jeremy rewound the music box then checked the Fazbear gang, none of them had moved yet, nor had the old ones. Excellent. He lowered the tablet and saw Mangle looking at him from the doorway.

"It's okay, come on in, come here." He said gently as if speaking to a stray dog. She climbed into the room and began to move to her corner. "No, no, here. Beside me!"

The Mangle's heads turned to him at break neck speed, obviously surprised by his order, it tilted its costumed head then crawled down from the ceiling and moved up to him.

"It's okay, it's okay." He said gently and lifted the screw driver, "I'll do what I can, as quick as I can." He said, before quickly checking his tablet, and going through the necessary motions. "But you've seen how mad things are in here for me, so." He trailed off, he knew she knew, she'd watched him enough times. She nodded in understanding.

* * *

That night had been strange for her, and yet surprisingly intimate. As usual Jeremy had been going through the motions with the strange device then using what little free time he had unscrewing parts of her body, and rearranged them so they were attached in their proper place.

"The connections are weak." He'd noted during one of his few stops, already it was two-thirty-five in the morning. "No wonder the kids pull you apart and snap you back together." He commented.

It was true, she knew that, sometimes it was a wonder her limbs didn't just fall off from her, the night had been dangerous given Jeremy's extra activity of trying to fix her as best he could, at times he'd nearly been caught by her fellow performers if she hadn't alerted him to the problem, it wasn't till after five that he had fixed her, a few extra pieces laying on the ground, presumably spare parts.

It had been just about to turn 6 a.m. when she turned to look at him, he gave her an exhausted yet small smile, "there all better … kind of." 6.a.m. sounds out and she gets up to leave, picking up the spare piece as she does so. It felt strange to walk again, but her CPU quickly readjusted to the form. She nodded her head to him, she opened her mouth and the garbled static came through her voice box, before she closed it, turned around and left, retreating back to her cove. All the while things felt different once more, before she could not determine this feeling she felt throughout her whole being, but now? She felt like she could, Jeremy her saviour had saved her again. How could she not love him? But she knew it could never be, she was a machine and he was human, their love was impossible.

* * *

And so another week passed, during the nights he would let her come close, he'd let her sit beside his desk staying vigilant in case one of her kind snuck up on him. She noticed as the week progressed he seemed less tense, less tired, which in turn made him smile more, made him smile _at her_ more which made her metaphorical heart flutter and her internal systems heat up. She loved being close to him, her love, he was as the saying went ' _so close yet so far_ ', she could touch him yet she couldn't _be_ with him, he didn't look at her that way, couldn't acknowledge her that way. It wasn't his fault, she knew what she was, a machine. Man could not love Machine, even if said Machine had a powerful learning computer for a brain. So she simply allowed herself to enjoy this closeness between them.

Her fellow performers she hypothesised would be less than happy with her change of allegiance. However, it seemed their programming was still limited due to the malicious software running through their CPUs as hers had been, they were incapable of learning, and so Jeremy's Fazbear mask continually fooled their systems. During the brief and rare moments, they questioned her, "Why was she next to a predator?" "Why was she next to an Endoskeleton? It needed to be suited."

"I'm next to a new Freddy." She would reply through her garbled static. They continued to accept it, only to question it again the next night then accepted her reasoning all over again, a tiny blessing of their malfunctioning software.

During the day however she watched him as he was brought back in during the afternoon shifts while the other employee was still away with some form of sickness, not that she cared. Jeremy would come and see her, sometimes, when _that woman_ was gone he was even allowed to watch over her and her cove.

However, at times, the woman would come up to Jeremy as he watched over the cove, and she'd yell at him, accuse him of things, like tampering with her when everyone had seen her fixed up.

"Hey I fixed her, okay, it's not really tampering." He argued.

"It is when it's not _meant_ to be fixed!" Alice had argued back heatedly.

"Well maybe if you actually did _your job_ she wouldn't be broken in the first place! But no you're too busy being a hormonal bitch!" he yelled back.

And then the restaurant echoed as flesh met flesh.

Her eye-lids opened wider as she watched the woman slap her secret love. So hard in fact he almost fell over.

"Get out." The woman growled. "And just be lucky I can't fire you, because believe me Fitzgerald, if I _could_ you'd have been gone _long_ ago."

Jeremy glared at the woman and marched out with a red cheek, a bruised ego, and a foul temper.

That night he'd returned in the same foul mood. She had returned to his side looking at the bright red cheek, all the while during his shift, when not panicking about his survival, he would rant about the woman they both hated.

It was then she began to plot and to plan. Jeremy didn't deserve what happened to him, didn't deserve to have that woman hounding him during the day. And that woman dared to lay a hand on him, dared to call herself a mother to-be after calling the children "brats", she didn't deserve to be a mother, didn't deserve the life that was growing inside her, didn't deserve to lay a hand on _her man!_ But what to do about it? Stuffing her into the suit wouldn't be right for the child, the child would be hurt, no killed! That couldn't be allowed to happen. But if she hurt her, then the baby would be hurt too unless … _unless._ She put the majority of her CPU's computing power into her plan.

Jeremy wasn't called back during the day shifts for the rest of the week, everyday she'd get torn apart, though every night her beloved would fix her as best he could. She loved that he tried. If all went well, she could be beautiful for him.

She'd finally get her chance the day she'd overheard Mr Fazburn inform Alice that she would be staying until Jeremy relieved her at midnight.

"You're kidding me!" she complained.

"I know you there have been some altercations involving you and Jeremy … and I _have_ heard about what happened the other day, do _not_ let that happen again Alice do you understand me?" He instructed her harshly.

"Yes sir, alright." She replied in a grouchy yet defeated tone.

"As the daytime supervisor your _job_ is to keep order, if you have a problem deal with it _professionally,_ if you have a problem with a colleague report to me, understood?" Mr Fazburn said in a serious tone.

"I understand sir, I'm sorry." Alice replied in a chastised manner.

"Very well, when you see Jeremy tonight you will apologies for your behaviour, then if he's needed tomorrow you will again apologise in front of the staff." He ordered in a calm and collected manner.

"You're right sir, I'm sorry." Alice replied with a gentle, defeated, exhale or breath.

This was her chance, at last. Everything she'd planned would be put into action, she had everything prepared, using spare minutes from the week gone by to set everything up, it had been difficult but it had worked, her internal clock had been reset to be thirty minutes fast, that was all the time she'd need. Tonight would be the perfect night nothing would interrupt, she'd made sure of it.

* * *

11:35 at night Alice was sat at the security desk looking at the tablet with absolute boredom. She hated this shift, just sit down and stare at a camera for about two hours until the night guard i.e. that little piss pants Jeremy came inside. She didn't like him, cocky little smart aleck son of a bitch, thinking he was clever with turning her words round. Bastard.

She was bored out of her mind! She looked down to her belly, "you better behave tonight." She grimaced.

It was then she heard a tapping noise.

"What the?" she looked up, shining the light down the hallway, she saw nothing. "Jeremy?!" she called yet received no answer. She checked the tablet, one of the cameras had turned black, Kids' Cove. "Great." She grumbled, piece of shit technology breaking down on her, she switched to another camera, just as something blurred across the screen, she blinked and rubbed her eyes before looking again, nothing, had she imagined it? "Jeremy if that's you! You are SO fired." She yelled out.

Still there was nothing, maybe she saw nothing, it was only twenty to twelve, way before Jeremy would get in and from what she'd been told he'd been coming in a few minutes before midnight, probably still pissed off at her, the childish little shit.

Well, maybe she was being a little harsh. She felt something twist in her gut and for once it wasn't the baby, but guilt. She'd been more than a little unfair to the little bastard. Her break-up hadn't been great and the memory of it all still hurt, and she'd tried her best not to let it hurt her, so what had she done? She'd made others hurt to alleviate her pain, made Jeremy hurt.

' _Not a fitting example of mother-hood.'_ She thought glumly to herself, then rubbed her tired eyes, perhaps Fazburn was right, she needed to apologise to the kid, bury the hatchet as it were. She had to be mature about this, had to put everything her ex had done behind her. Her Ex-boyfriend, the bastard, he was everything Jeremy wasn't; tall, dark, handsome, liked to have a drink, a smoke, wore a leather jacket and styled his hair similar to Jeremy. She'd thought he'd have been happy they were going to have a family; she should've known better. Then there was Jeremy, young, naive Jeremy; he drank coffee, played with kids, kept them entertained, had that boyish charm to him. The kinda guy a mother would love. _'Damn it.'_ She mentally cursed.

Suddenly there was a loud bang the came from down the hallway. "Who's there?!" Should she go investigate? No! Fuck that, that's how people got killed in movies, and she was very content on staying where she was. "I swear if it's you Jeremy, I'm going to kill you!" she swore loudly as she began to sweat.

She heard the door bang again and quickly checked the cameras, she saw something blur across the screen from the main entrance security feed. "Who's there!?" she called out before checking other cameras, she couldn't get a fix on who that was and now she was _positive_ she saw someone. "I'm calling the police!" she picked up the phone on the desk and dialled 911 … she put the phone to her ear and all she got was static. "What the?" she looked back at the phone, it wasn't even plugged in, the cable was missing! Since when?!

"This isn't funny!" she called out in panic, then looked to the tablet, something ducked out from the cameras screen and disappeared. "Oh my god, who is that?!" she whimpered to herself, she looked back to the hallway shining her light, she saw nothing. What the fuck was going on?

She checked the cameras again, there was nothing on any of the screens, she checked the cameras in the vents still nothing, what the hell?

Then she heard a strange static noise, she looked to the camera watching as it turned trying to locate the noise, yet she couldn't find it anywhere on the camera … oh … oh god.

Slowly Alice lowered the tablet and stared straight ahead.

 _SSCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRREEEEEAAAAAAAAAH_

Alice screamed as her vision was overwhelmed with white and pink.

* * *

Jeremy had felt grouchy all week, he'd done his best not to take it out on Mangle-no _Foxxie_ , maybe he had been though, he'd been quiet, sometimes frustratingly so, sure he'd been concentrating to stay alive but Foxxie had been a big help, allowing him to remain focused on his tablet more as _she_ kept her eyes on things going on around the office, it had actually been a load off his mind. He still hadn't figured out why she'd changed, to be honest by this point nearly a month and a half since the incident he didn't really care. He had an ally, a friend. And it was kinda nice actually.

He stood outside the pizzeria before checking his watch, he had a few minutes to get in, and get comfy, that was fine. One plus it seemed with Alice being really pissed off at him, was he never got called back in for afternoon shifts and so he was able to catch up on his much needed sleep.

Jeremy pushed the door open, "Hello?!" he called but got no reply. He felt a chill run down his spine as he quickly moved towards the security office and found no one there, however there was a bag. Alice's bag. "Oh great." He groaned. Alice was probably using the ladies for one reason or another. He checked his watch, 11:50, he had ten minutes to find Alice, get her out of here and leave. No problem.

He put his bag aside leaving Alice's on top of the desk and pulled out the Freddy mask from the bottom draw and the flashlight, the front of it looked a little banged up. "Freaking idiot." He muttered to himself, some guard was probably playing with it early and dropped it, he shined the flashlight down the hallway, it worked perfectly fine at least. He quickly made a move down the hallway.

"Alice!" he called out, there was no reply. "Alice!" he shouted again, nothing.

He made his way to the closest lady's lavatory, and knocked on the door, "Alice it's Jeremy, you in there?" he called out once again receiving no reply. He looked to his watch, he had eight minutes. _'Oh no.'_ he gulped, "I'm opening the door, please don't be mad." He called out the slowly pushed the door open, the lights were off, he couldn't hear anything.

"Alice?" No reply. He walked to the stalls and gently pushed them open, no one was in any of them. Where the hell was she?

He returned to the security office and looked around, maybe she left a note or something, nothing on the desk, he rooted around in her bag, nothing in there. He sat down on the chair then immediately sprang up, it was _wet._ "Oh god." He grimaced, then shined the light on the chair, the liquid wasn't blood, so then perhaps the baby had decided now was the time it wanted to pop out and she'd left in a hurry, which meant her water broke while she sat down.

"Oh ew." He grimaced and looked to his watch, he had five minutes before another nightmare started, "Great." He muttered and ran off back to the lavatories to get some tissue to clean the chair, he returned a few minutes later and placed all the paper over the wet spill before sitting down. "As if my night could get and worse." He looked to his watch; 11:59. "Here we go." He muttered.

* * *

Something wasn't right, not right at all. Firstly; the camera in the Parts and Services area and Kids' Cove had been deactivated or covered. That was bad if he wanted to keep track of everything, but secondly and much stranger; nothing had happened. The Fazbear band were still stood on the stage, Balloon Boy was still in Prize Corner hell someone had even locked the music box into a fully wound up position so it played on and on and on and it had been over an hour since his shift began! He wasn't used to this … quiet.

"What the hell is going on?" he muttered to himself in silent panic quickly checking through all available cameras, no one was moving, none of them had even flinched. Was this a trap? Were they lulling him into a false sense of security? By this time, he should've been up to his neck with animatronics, Foxxie should've been by his side, was she okay? Had they done something to her?

' _Fight or flight Jeremy, fight or flight?'_ he wondered to himself. "Worse decision ever." He muttered to himself as he grabbed his flashlight and rose from his chair, pulling damp toilet paper from his rear as he did so, then made the slow cautious journey down the hallway. He felt his heart pounding against his ribcage threatening to break out of it like that scene from _Alien_. Nothing jumped out to grab him, nothing screamed at him. He kept his eyes locked on the stage where Freddy, Bonnie and Chica were still stood, as still as statues while creeping towards Kids' Cove. There, he moved the curtain and shone the light inside, nothing, other than a few toys, the Cove was empty, no Foxxie.

He spun around suddenly feeling eyes on him, but found nothing, the band was still on the stage. He released a slow shuddering breath and crept up to the band, watching for any sign of movement. He stood there, in front of the cute killers, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, he moved to the edge of the stage and climbed up and shone his light at the gang, it was from this angle he saw something.

"What the?" he pondered and moved to get a better look, it looked as if … yes, yes it was, it was exactly how it looked, the back of their heads had been broken open, wires and various pieces of metal had been pulled out. If their CPUs were still functioning, they couldn't control their bodies, they were effectively paralysed.

He turned cautiously towards the hallway that lead to parts and services, had someone done the same to the old models, and if so where was Foxxie? Had she done this? He turned around and walked with a hurried pace back to the office. Upon reaching his office his gaze focused on Alice's bag, Alice wasn't here and with all the weirdness that was going on tonight with the broken animatronics and a missing Foxxie, he was no longer so sure about his earlier theory.

"Jeremy!" he heard someone call him.

Jeremy spun around and looked down the hallway, he didn't see anything.

"Hello?" he called back then glanced to his tablet, picked it up and begun searching through the cameras, he couldn't spot anything, until he switched to the camera of the main hall, he saw a brief glimpse of something stepping into … the hallway, he lowered the tablet and looked up seeing a figure stood at the end.

"Hello?" he lifted his flashlight and pressed the button, nothing happened. _'Damn thing.'_ He grimaced

"Jeremy!" the voice called out as it made its way closer rocking from side to side a little with unsteady steps, it's voice, it almost sounded like …

"Alice? That you?" he asked

"It's me." She called back as she stepped closer.

He sighed with some relief, "Where the hell have you been? I thought you'd left your bag and everything was still here, _why_ are you even still here?" He asked.

Alice stumbled a little but placed a hand on the wall to steady herself.

"Woah hey, Alice. Are you okay there?" he said and took a step closer, he didn't like her, not at all. But if she were hurt or if she needed medical assistance, he couldn't ignore her.

"It's me Jeremy." Alice called back to him, in a tone, a caring tone, that he wasn't used to, she stood back up straight and continued towards him.

"Uh … Alice, are you okay?" he asked, she sounded a little … _off._

"Everything is perfect now Jeremy." She replied, her voice sounded a little off, maybe she was sick, maybe coming down with a cold.

It was then his survival instincts kicked in, something about this whole situation didn't feel right, Foxxie was gone, the animatronics were disabled and Alice was acting unlike herself.

As Alice stumbled closer as if she were drunk, he suddenly took notice that she seemed excessively taller, her body seemed strangely out of proportion compared to when he'd last seen her and there was… something over her shoulder.

"Alice?" he questioned cautiously and raised the flashlight once more, tapping the end of it against the palm of his hand before aiming it down the hallway and pressing the button.

The flashlight turned on, illuminating the hallway and Jeremy felt like his heart stopped as his eyes widened in horror.

In a grotesque fusion of flesh and metal Foxxie walked closer to him. A face … Alice's face, torn from the woman herself had been haphazardly stretched across the secondary animatronic skull, half of the flesh had torn away revealing the crimson coated metal alloy underneath, strands of skin hung as lifeless as the remaining strands of hair still adorning the skin-mask's scalp. The secondary head focused on Jeremy with one plastic and one organic eye which was pressed up tightly against the flesh. Flesh and muscles was interlaced with the metal work of Mangle's neck, wires pierced through it several times keeping it held in place while tiny hydraulics could be seen sliding up and down through the tissue. Mechanical arms, made up of parts from different models were stuffed unceremoniously through sleeves of flesh which bulged and became torn from the sheer bulk of the hydraulics and pistons it wasn't meant to conceal, flaps of muscle and fat clung to the inner sides of sleeves, at the ends of the arms were two large animatronic hands, hands that were not Mangle's, too big and too complex to be hers, the flesh of the left hand had completely tore open and now hung from the wrist like an open sleeve while the flesh of the right limb still clung to the metal though it bulged to the near breaking point from the tiny hydraulics, the thumb and index finger had already torn away, giving up chance of holding it the machine inside. Legs like the arms seemed to been custom built and jury-rigged together before being inserted through the meat bags of Alice's legs, bulging grotesquely and tearing worse than the arms leaving a trail of a life's precious liquid from the mangled torn stumps of fleshy feet that had burst open like a balloon from having to keep in the large mechanical feet that once belonged to the original Foxy. Adorning the chest was a pair of uneven breasts held in place by flesh that had been pulled tightly around the endoskeleton frame, several amateur stitches adorning the flesh where it had previously torn, wires and metal piercings kept the breasts aloft while a series of tubes, pierced through the cleavage led to a glass sphere custom built into the frame of the endoskeleton, within the held a nightmarish sight, a foetus floated amidst a mass of organic matter and a strange viscous fluid, completely oblivious to what had happened to its natural mother, to Alice.

Foxxie stopped in front of the desk and opened her arms out to him, she opened her mouth revealing a several wires penetrating into a severed tongue which sloshed around randomly against the bottom of her mouth.

"I'm perfect for you now Jeremy." Foxxie said lovingly with Alice's voice. "Now we can be together."

Jeremy took a few step back as this Mangled creature stepped closer, what could he do? Fight or flight, fight or flight? Panicked gripped him he merely stared wide eyed at the monstrous cyborg.

"Now we can have the family we deserve." She said in a terrifyingly soft and caring voice.

Instincts finally took hold, he quickly ducked around the machine and bolted down the hallway.

"Jeremy? Where are you going?" The Mangle called after him, turning on unsteady legs and stumbled after him, more of the organic material around her began to tear. "Slow down my love!"

Jeremy grabbed the handle for the door and tried to open it, nothing. He shook the door before slamming his shoulder against it, hoping and praying it would give.

"Trying to open the door for a lady?" he heard Alice's voice from behind and felt a shiver run down his spine, "Such a gentleman."

Jeremy turned to see the Mangle pick one of the breasts from the floor and push it back against her endoskeleton, taking wires and feeding it through flaps of skin to hold it in place. "After all my hard work, it's still not right." The Mangle complained to him, "Doesn't matter though," she paused and smiled as best she could at him, not seeming to notice his horrified expression, "we'll have the rest of our lives to fix it."

He looked for a way to escape, he looked left, then right, his eyes gazing towards but not focussing on the band.

"I had to get rid of them, to put them down, I did it for you my love, they wouldn't leave you, leave _us_ alone, I couldn't let them ruin my chances, ruin our happily ever after!" Mangle cried out in anguish, as if what she did truly hurt her.

Jeremy made a quick dash but the Machine was faster, she grabbed hold of his arm, Jeremy momentum nearly pulling it from the socket, he turned to try and fight his way out of her grip only for her capture his other arm and forced him closer, "Do not worry Jeremy, you can trust me, I _love_ you, and I know you love me too, and soon we'll both be able to love _our_ baby."

Jeremy's speech was incomprehensible and stammered as Mangle pulled him to her body then put her arms around him trapping him in an embrace. "Nothing will ever hurt you again."

* * *

"It has been a month since the brutal murder of Alice McGuffin, and the theft of a several millions dollar animatronic from Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria, Police's main suspect Jeremy Fitzgerald is still missing, if viewers at home have any information on Fitzgerald's where about please inform your local police force … in related news; there has been another mysterious disappearance of young woman in the city, Bethany Anne Thompson was reported missing two nights ago, after leaving her friend's home at 10 o'clock at night …"

The television was turned off abruptly, a figure; it's features hidden in darkness of the room, set the remote down on the table and turned their attention to the young man gagged and tied down to a wooden chair.

"I understand my love," a soft sweet voice said to him "you're upset you're being blamed for all this, but don't worry, it'll be behind us as soon as we leave this awful city."

The sound of a baby's cry took the figure's attention away from the man, "Oh darling." The figure said in a soothing voice before walking out of the room towards the tiny make-shift crib, she reached in and pulled a tiny new born baby from the crib and placed the child against one of her breasts, "eat up, mommy will make sure you grow big and strong."

The figure stepped closer to the bound man, "I'm sorry for all this Jeremy, but I know you'll calm down soon enough, you must still be ever so upset about leaving it all behind, I know, I know, I am too. But we have our family here now, we'll make this work, I know we will."

The figure stepped into the light, the nightmarish cyborg stood before him, several more layers of flesh stitched over her body like a patchwork suit, a top the plastic head were several human scalps stitched together and glued in place, hair of different colours, blond, red, black and brown hung over the white plastic face and came to rest over exposed metal shoulders, glued around the mouth of the fox head were several set of lips, cut up and crudely stitched back together.

"Don't worry Jeremy, you, me and little Kenny here, we'll be okay." She smiled, the lips stretching near the point of tearing against her maw. "We'll finally have our happy ending."

* * *

Jason's Notes.

I hope you all really enjoyed this story. This was difficult but such a pleasure to write!


End file.
